You can't fail to recognise the fact that Ryan king is a very good winger.England 16s,England 18s . Last season top try scorer. Pushed Matty Russell close for man of the match in the academy final. This season he was injured in the first game of the season against Barrow .He was still injured when he was selected to play in a pointless friendly against South Wales scorpions. Actually limping in the warm up . This knocked him back a further 3 weeks. He has scored 16 tries in the nines so far and he is still getting his confidence and speed back. I watch every game of the academy and the problem lies mainly with the centre not distributing the ball . He has gone full games without getting a single pass , only getting the ball running from dummy half , On his debut he scored 2 tries taken extremely well outside Carmont and would have had his third only for a forward pass from hock.For me he should be given the oportunity to show what he can do . As for saying he would get mullered under the high ball , Ryan has a very safe pair of hands , very rarely knocking on and extremely safe under the high ball .

Any winger new to the first team will be targeted, the physical presence that Gelling has gives him the advantage over the others being put forward for the first team.

Well, whoever plays on Friday should have a field day against Ainscough!

He is useful because he is such a handful to defenders. Seems to make more ground than other wingers. He didn't do anything wrong did he? All I saw was a raw athlete running hard and finishing off one good chance he got.

high crossfield kicks to Ainscoughs wing on Friday

Two or three half-chances, that he simply didn't have the pace to exploit (Mellor outpaced him for the first one, IIRC). He's had a run of 8 straight games now, 10 in total, he should be showing more signs of improvement, IMO.

I think he could be an excellent centre, I just don't think he's enough of a threat on the wing.

He is not a natural finisher but he is hard to stop close to the line. He probably won't score them like Josh does from distance but he will finish off decent chances.

He hits hard taking the ball up and he hits hard in defence. He is good under the high ball and doesn't seem to get low on confidence after a mistake.

Agreed, and all excellent qualities. Perhaps I'm just being greedy in wanting a long-range threat on both wings, but I don't think it's a lot to ask...all our nearest rivals (except Saints

) seem to manage it.

And they are all behind us. You can't have everything...

This simply isnt true. In the past Goulding has got more undeserved stick on here, even when he was still a teenager, than any other player that I have seen. Goulding also had never played on the wing before first team level and despite doing very well, scoring loads of tries and getting picked for England he was still criticised by some and certainly didnt get the leeway that people seem to want Gelling to get. Any criticism of Gelling is certainly nothing compared to some of the stick that Goulding has got in the past.

So what do we want Gelling to do? Is he a second rower, centre or winger? Are we trying to manufacture a winger out of him? Are there any ready made wingers who can step in? Are we then depriving a home-grown player the chance to play, who may also have the potential?

He's doing an excellent job of taking the pressure off the forwards, isn't costing us points with defensive cock ups and gets over the line every now and then. (6 tries in 10 isn't a bad record imo) Carry on son.

This

Looking at the bigger picture I suspect it is more of a longer term view by the coaching staff. Gelling was brought over as a possible replacement for Carmont but he is raw and needs to gain experience. Having a run of games in the first team will undoubtedly give him chance to gain that experience especially playing outside Carmont - who better to learn from? Every game he plays is money in the bank in terms of his development - probably more than expected.

In the meantime he is doing a decent job on the wing - not fantastic but certainly not letting anyone down so it is not costing the team anything (and I think he has improved quite a lot since he first made his debut - he certainly does not make as many mistakes as he did) and indeed does a good job of taking pressure off the forwards on kick returns.

I have no doubt that if Wane thought he wasn't doing a good enough job he would be out of the team very quickly.

still think ryan king deserves a go at some point

Wasn't just him but the whole "it hasn't cost us a game" is out the window now!

I don't think he will last long in the team IMHO.

I brought up my concerns weeks ago about this guy and his lack of finishing will cost us a close game he didn't lose us that on his own but he played a big part in it last night

He needs to be in the pack or dropped to the academy imo he's not a winger the guy is like a rabbit in head lights out there

The guy is certainly a bit of an enigma, can't help liking him until he gets the ball near the try line and it's like the lights go out sometimes and last night when he knocked on with the line begging the vast majority of the crowd put their heads in their hands and after that I just didn't want anyone to pass to him and it wont be long before the players feel the same unless he starts to believe in himself

I don't think he's necessarily a bad player.

He does come in for work and his footwork is fantastic.

I just don't think he's good enough to stop an local/British academy player to be denied first team RL.

I'd like to see him in the centres, which is his natural position, before we can fully judge him.

Gelling seems to be the opposite of most wingers in that he's better in his own half than the oppositions. In particular he seems to be the opposite of Karl Pryce, especially in terms of effort.

He runs in hard from his own half, comfortable under a high ball and his defence is good. This is why IMO he keeps getting picked above any of the academy lads who could be a bit more suspect in defence. His finishing and ball handling at time is atrocious though and he has plenty of errors in him. Wane needs to decide if risking a potentially poorer defender but better finisher is going to be worthwhile.

Against Wakey he could put Sam back at 1 with Murphy on the wing instead of Gelling? Though I think we might see Sam in the halves next week.

Pryce would have probably scored all the chances which Gelling missed and yet still would get slated.